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Fried Frogs' Legs

Fried frog legs seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in flour or cracker crumbs, and deep-fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Frogs' Legs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and wash the hind legs of the frogs.

  2. Soak them in milk for 15 minutes.

Coat and fry

  1. Without wiping, season with salt and pepper, then coat with flour.

  2. Fry in deep boiling fat until light brown.

  3. Alternatively, wipe off the milk, dip in egg and pounded cracker, then fry.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Soaks into the frog legs, adding moisture and helping the coating stick.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns in the hot fat and gives a crisp surface.
Egg
Binds the cracker coating to the frog legs as an alternative to flour.
Pounded cracker
Adds a crunchy, browning outer layer when used in the alternative coating.

The step that matters

Fry in deep boiling fat until light brown. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy, and the meat can overcook before the crust browns.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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